Wishful Thinking

Every day at meal time Fanny, the bulldog, thinks if she eats fast enough and then looks at me hungrily I will give her another dishful of dog food. The fact that this has never happened, that history has proved it won't happen, isn't enough to change her "gut instinct."

I am totally sympathetic. I have a few cherished beliefs of my own. Such as if I walk the dog daily, eat no cookies, drink no soda, own lots of exercise equipment, and buy my clothes one size too small, I will miraculously lose weight. This hasn't happened and I really need to look at the actual evidence instead of using wishful thinking.

Therefore I completely understand why The Republican Party holds on to so many of their cherished beliefs long after they have been proven to be wrong. For example:

Abstinence-only sex ed: By not talking about birth control, fewer teenagers will have sex.

War on Drugs: By putting drug users in prison, by spending millions defoliating large areas of land in South America, by seizing the possessions of anyone even suspected of trafficking in drugs, fewer people will use drugs.

Trickle-down economics: By cutting the taxes of the wealthiest, the poor will benefit in some way.

Loosening Gun Control: By putting a gun in everyone's pocket (and pocketbook) crime will go down.

But the most fundamental belief of the Republican party is the idea of laissez faire. This is on my mind today because last night I watched a Frontline news report titled "Is Wal-Mart Good For America? And the answer after viewing the program would have to be, "No."

For years it has been reported that when Wal-Mart comes to town, local businesses fail and often entire downtowns become ghost towns. This is how capitalism works. Recently, however, Wal-Mart has added a global twist; they now import vast quantities of goods from China and American producers just cannot compete with the Chinese. So instead of affecting towns one by one, Wal-Mart is now putting entire factories out of business. One interview with a spokeswoman from the port of Long Beach, California was chilling. She said that last year $36 million worth of goods came into the port from China and only $3 million went out back to China. What comes in? Electronics, machinery, clothing, shoes. What goes out? Cotton, scrap metal, hides, waste paper. Merchandise in, raw materials out...not good news for America.

Wal-Mart says, "We are good for America because Americans can buy the things they want cheaper." Sure, Americans can buy a cheaper television at Wal-Mart but if you lost your job at the television factory, the only thing you can afford to buy is food.

Laissez-Faire goes beyond Wal-Mart practices. To get a handle on the Republican ideal of self-regulating industry, just look at Grover Norquist and his powerful group, Americans For Tax Reform. Their agenda is to do away with all "socialist" type programs such as the FDA, the EPA, and OSHA. So why shouldn't we allow corporations to regulate themselves? The answer: Tainted meat, increased pollution, more work-related accidents and deaths. I'm sure the people who lost their pensions and savings when Enron collapsed would have a few choice words to say about hands-off government.

When it comes to Fanny, I'm definately hands-on. I've only allowed Fanny to practice self-discipline with her food once-- by accident. We accidently left a 50 lb bag of dog chow sitting in the laundry room while we ran a quick errand. When we came back it was to a bloated dog unable to greet us at the door. She spent the entire weekend lying around, groaning, and polluting the air.